Day 13 — Mount Rainier National Park

Dear Natalie,

I woke up with a start at 7:05 this morning to the sound of someone rapping on the side of the trailer. I had forgotten that we told Clare to get up at 7:00 so she could make breakfast. She has been begging to make chocolate chip pancakes for days. We planned to make them at the Kalaloch cabin, then realized that the kitchenette was equipped with neither a frying pan nor a spatula, and, to Clare’s deep disappointment, I rejected the idea of making pancakes in a soup pot and flipping them with a fork.

So there she was this morning, dressed and standing outside the trailer at the crack of early, ready to make pancakes. Dad helped her out a bit while I put my clothes on, and by the time I got back to the campsite from the bathroom, a delicious pancake and bacon breakfast was waiting for me. I’ll put up with all the groaning and eye-rolling of this is what camping with teen-agers is like.

Chef Clare

We only had to drive about 20 minutes up the road to get to the Paradise Visitors Center. We got there early enough to easily find a parking spot. (By the time we left, in later afternoon, parked cars had overflowed out of the lot onto the road and down the mountain for a half-mile.) We stopped at the ranger desk for a trail map, then launched ourselves onto the Skyline Trail a 5.5-mile loop that ascends through wildflower-filled meadows to Panorama Point, a lookout that on clear days offers views of not only Rainier, but also Mount Adams and Mount Saint Helens to the south, then descends through fields of snow and across glacier-fed streams. I mean “launched" almost literally: The trailhead is just outside the door to the visitor center, and it starts out immediately with a grueling climb straight up.

For the first ten minutes of the hike, Clare was outraged that she was required to exert herself. “I hate this!” was her actual out-loud mantra until, in a fit of indignation, she bolted ahead of us, and was blessedly out of earshot. She started warming up to the idea of the hike a few minutes later, when she came within a few feet of a marmot (chowing down on another rodent), and was instantly charmed.

Marmot eating something ... or someone

Today is Saturday, so of course the park was crazy-crowded. The hike was labeled “strenuous” on the map, and we had chosen it hoping that the masses would stick to less difficult trails. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as everybody and their mother climbed the path along with us.

I think this was an entire mountaineering class behind us.

As we ascended, a thick cloud blew over the mountain and in a matter of minutes, the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the peak disappeared from view. It would continue to materialize and then vanish again throughout the afternoon.

Lunch in the clouds at Panorama Point, with 30 of our closest friends.

The trail climbs 1,700 feet in the first two miles or so. We stopped for lunch at Panorama Point, and shortly after that the trail started to wind back down the mountain toward the trailhead — and, coincidentally, the crowds began to thin. We think most of them turned around and went back down the way they came up. As we continued on the loop, we crossed fields of snow, forded streams and trekked through meadows of wildflowers. Truly, it was the perfect hike. It was exactly the experience that I had been hoping for in Mount Rainier National Park. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the visitors center, because there was WiFi. The place was total zoo, but we were able to find a couple of comfy chairs to hang out it, and I was able to get a little bit of work done on the blog. (There was not enough WiFi, unfortunately, to upload my entries to the blog, though. Sorry!) Clare got a Junior Ranger badge. And Dad took a little snooze.

For dinner, we drove straight down the mountain to a little restaurant called Wildberry, just outside the park gate, which offers traditional American comfort food as well as authentic Sherpa-Himalayan cuisine — for all those mountain climbers who are homesick for Everest. Clare had chicken strips, of course. Charlie ordered a gyro. But Dad and I went straight for the Nepali fare and stuffed ourselves with chicken curry and (momo) steamed pork dumplings, and sherpa stew along with bhatt (rice), daal (lentils) and Nepali flat bread. I had read about this restaurant and worked it into our itinerary weeks ago. We had been looking forward to it all day on the trail, and it definitely did not disappoint.

A perfect day! Rainier is an amazing place! We wish you were here.

We love you and miss you.

Love, Mom

xoxoxoxo